Reinwald was founded on 14 July 1766 by recruiters in the Tsarina's government. The founding year has been recorded as 1767 in error in several sources (Sallet, Beratz, the gazetteer in Mai's 1798 Census, the gazetteer in Mai & Marquardt's German Migration to the Russian Volga, etc.). However, according to the 1767 Census, published by Igor Plehve in 2008, the first group of settlers arrived in Reinwald on 14 July 1766. They were followed by a second group that arrived 24 June 1767.
According to Christian August Tornow, the colony was called Hornus during the first couple of years after it was founded. By decree dated 26 February 1768, Reinwald received the official Russian name of Staritsa which means Oxbow Lakes.
Today, what remains of the former colony of Reinwald is known as Staritskoye.
Reinwald was founded by Lutheran settlers. Originally the congregation there was part of the Rosenheim parish which had been established in 1767. In 1820, Reinwald became part of the Reinhard parish.
The first wooden church was constructed in Reinwald in 1791. A new building was constructed in 1831. It was enlarged in 1835, and is said to accommodate 500 worshipers. In 1865, a third church building was constructed in the "Kontor Style." A fourth structure was completed in 1913. This church served the community until the 1930s when religious services were discontinued across the Soviet Union. It was officially closed on 22 November 1933.
Following the 1941 explusion of the Volga Germans, the steeple of the 1913 church in Reinwald was removed and the building converted into a community cultural center which is still in use today.
The congregation in Reinwald was served by the following pastors:
- 1767-1785 Ludwig Helm
- 1777-1787? Daniel Willi
- 1786-1788 Laurentius Ahlbaum
- 1788-1791 Klaus Peter Lundberg
- 1792-1815 Mag. Christian Friedrich Jäger
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
|
231
|
|
|
| 1769 |
57
|
222
|
115
|
107
|
| 1773 |
57
|
263
|
132
|
131
|
| 1788 |
54
|
306
|
154
|
152
|
| 1798 |
58
|
390
|
206
|
184
|
| 1816 |
78
|
614
|
307
|
307
|
| 1834 |
122
|
1,104
|
556
|
548
|
| 1850 |
182
|
1,670
|
865
|
805
|
| 1857 |
198
|
2,086
|
1,081
|
1,005
|
| 1859 |
|
2,211
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
3,021
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,948*
|
1,521
|
1,427
|
| 1905 |
|
5,007
|
|
|
| 1910 |
645
|
5,033
|
2,574
|
2,459
|
| 1912 |
|
5,174
|
|
|
| 1920 |
452
|
3,134
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,191
|
|
|
| 1926** |
443
|
2,316
|
1,117
|
1,199
|
| 1931 |
|
2,931***
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,942 were German.
**Of whom 2,307 (1,109 male & 1,198 female) were German living in 439 households.
***Of whom 2,923 were German.
Reinwald (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
- Beratz, Gottieb. The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development: a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764. Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 352.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Erbes, Johannes. Deutsche Volkszeitung (23 August 1906).
- Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 612.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 11, 29-46.
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, translated by Richard Rye (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 318.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- Reinwald Church [in Russian].
- Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II by Count Orlov, 14 February 1769.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 17.
1767 Census of Reinwald
1798 Census of Reinwald
1850 Census of Reinwald
1857 Census of Reinwald
51.564833, 46.503167
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Street scene in Reinwald.
Source: David A. Markgraf
Panorama of Reinwald.
Source: Jorge Bohn.
Lutheran Church in Reinwald (Soviet era).
Source: Jorge Bohn.
Reinwald Lutheran Church (2004).
Source: Viktor Wolf (posted at wolgadeutsche.net)
Reinwald Lutheran Church (2008).
Source: wolgadeutsche.net
Reinwald Lutheran Church (2010).
Source: Galina Ruppel.